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Google pulls plug on Nexus One

zdnet.com

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Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#121

Post by macrael »

bretthoerner wrote: post #118
kyleslattery wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is though--if you go into a store and by an iPhone, you're guaranteed to have the newest version. If you go and buy an Android phone, you never quite know what you're getting.

They still sell the 3G. And that's kind of a tautology. You're tied to one manufacturer and one carrier. I can walk into the Verizon store and purchase the most expensive HTC phone and I know that I have the latest HTC on Verizon just like you know you have the latest Apple device on AT&T. A lack of choice doesn't mean you automatically have something better in your hands.

Actually, they sell the 3GS which is a year old and is running iOS4. So there is a difference in the way that the two operating systems are being adopted.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#122

Post by kyleslattery »

bretthoerner wrote: post #118
kyleslattery wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is though--if you go into a store and by an iPhone, you're guaranteed to have the newest version. If you go and buy an Android phone, you never quite know what you're getting.

They still sell the 3G. And that's kind of a tautology. You're tied to one manufacturer and one carrier. I can walk into the Verizon store and purchase the most expensive HTC phone and I know that I have the latest HTC on Verizon just like you know you have the latest Apple device on AT&T. A lack of choice doesn't mean you automatically have something better in your hands.

Sorry, I should have been clearer: you can't buy an iPhone that isn't running iOS 4. Yes, it may be older hardware, but you're guaranteed to have the newest version of the software.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#123

Post by mberning »

barrkel wrote: post #119
mberning wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell me what Froyo does the iOS4 doesn't. I switched from a 3gs to an N1 and the primitive nature of android is apparent at every corner. Browser runs like crap. Try loading a page with a bunch of graphics and text. It will run like a flip book cartoon. The music player is laughable. It doesn't even match up to an ipod classic. The exchange syncing does not work correctly, especially calendar syncing. And a la…

I've never seen the android browser crash, for one thing, and the extra memory means less refreshing when switching between windows. Biggest for me is file browsers, being able to copy content onto the device from across the network, not needing to deal with iTunes. I've replaced the default media browser, video player etc. And I can use my phone in bed with auto rotate disabled without having to jailbreak. To me, th…

You had to replace the defaults because they don't work well. Android can't even play a damn wav file without downloading an app. iOS4 has the capability to lock portrait mode. I never once wanted to use my iphone or nexus one as a mass storage device.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#124

Post by OmarIsmail »

moultano wrote: post #115
mberning wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell me what Froyo does the iOS4 doesn't. I switched from a 3gs to an N1 and the primitive nature of android is apparent at every corner. Browser runs like crap. Try loading a page with a bunch of graphics and text. It will run like a flip book cartoon. The music player is laughable. It doesn't even match up to an ipod classic. The exchange syncing does not work correctly, especially calendar syncing. And a la…

Here are the things I use regularly that iOS doesn't/probably-will-never have. - Free turn by turn navigation that's better than any dedicated gps device. - Wifi or bluetooth tethering. I recently was travelling with my girlfriend, and we both could access the internet on our laptops routed over WiFi through my phone. The hotel even had free wifi, but it was easier to not bother with figuring out how to set that up,…

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Jailbreak!

Other than the turn by turn every other feature you said is available with jail broken ios. So you get the best of both worlds: slick usabe interface and powerful features.

I honestly don't know why more people don't jailbreak their iPhones.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#125

Post by IgorPartola »

SandB0x wrote: post #64
jwhitlark wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call it a problem; it's an artifact of a completely different ecosystem. If it wasn't an open platform, and was all built by only one company, it wouldn't have been announced until just before it was shipped. I'm sure some people are frustrated by it, but following "publish early and often", and all that goes with it, is how open source works.

What's frustrating is that pretty much every Android phone is sold with a "with Google" stamp on the back, and that this basically means fuck all. It should mean "this is an Android phone that is built with Google's blessing and with Google's support, so lean back and don't worry".

Do you use Linux? Every Linux distro comes with a Linux kernel. Yet none of the distros are supported by the kernel team. It's a different task. In OSS world there is a concept of upstream, where cool newstuff happens and the package maintainers who pack the released software. The two almost never happen together. If you care to go into business of testing and delivering Android OS for every single phone out there - go ahead. You might even make $$ off of it. But in the mean time the official maintainers are the manufacturers and they are nit going to all agree on when to release the next update - it is a competitive advantage to them to keep the current OS + all the ads and proprietary features running as long as possible.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#126

Post by paul9290 »

This was a great PR stunt that further ignited Android as premium SmartPhone OS/experience and alternative to the iPhone.

I own an iPhone and prefer it due to hardware/software experience, but the Droid is pretty cool and the Droid X has some killer features.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#127

Post by jrockway »

lr wrote: post #62
jrockway wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can make meaningless statements too! "Here's the list of iPhone apps I can install on my iPhone without Apple's permission: {}" Incidentally, 2.2 (via the CM6 test) runs just fine on my Sapphire. The joy of Free Software is that I can fix my own device that is no longer the flavor of the month. T-Mobile will never give that device an Android > 2.0. But the community can, and it works much better than the stock imag…

That is great for you, but for 99% of the rest of the planet that doesn't give a flying f * about open source or couldn't care less about hacking a phone, the fragmentation of the Android market is only going to piss them off when they eventually encounter the day where their friends can do some cool thing on their Android phones, and they can't. With the iPhone the path of progression from one phone to another is si…

Yes, exactly. With Android, they can be upset, do a Google search, and have the same software as their friends. With iOS, they're out $600 for a new phone, sorry.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#128

Post by jrockway »

lwhi wrote: post #120
SandB0x wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's frustrating is that pretty much every Android phone is sold with a "with Google" stamp on the back, and that this basically means fuck all. It should mean "this is an Android phone that is built with Google's blessing and with Google's support, so lean back and don't worry".

I recently bought an HTC Desire - there's no "with Google" stamp. I don't think your statement is correct.

Indeed. The "with Google" mark carries meaning; it means you are getting AOSP (the consistent version of Android that is actually usable), instead of the handset's bastardized version of Android. (HTC Nonsense, Moto-durrr, etc.)

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#129

Post by zmmmmm »

ericd wrote: post #78
Niten wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's emphatically not a problem with the ecosystem. Android 2.2 phones are being designed as we speak, and Android 2.1 works perfectly fine for people in the meantime -- it's not like Google had to play catchup with Android 2.2 the way Apple did with iOS 4. Like you said, typical users such as your parents have no idea what software their phone is running; they just want it to work. Android 2.1 works perfectly we…

It's a problem in that the old phones should continue to be supported and get the new OS's in a timely fashion. They shouldn't need to worry about which OS is on there, but I think the OS should continue to get better over the life of the phone regardless. I'm not saying it needs to be out there right now, it's more of a question of whether a random model x will ever get it. Some probably won't, even if they can supp…

Consumers, rightly or wrongly have been trained to have absolutely zero expectation that their phone OS will be upgradeable. Apple is the one company (outside of Android) doing that at all and I think most consumers are quite surprised when iTunes starts telling them they can upgrade. I don't think this is an issue at all, at least not yet. It will become so as the app market matures and large numbers of consumers find they can't run high profile apps that require newer OS version.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#130

Post by zmmmmm »

tjogin wrote: post #18
tptacek wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they "gave up" so much as "saw they were never going to make a lot of money on it" and "were antagonizing the channel for the vast majority of all Android sales". G doesn't want to sell phones; they just want to control the OS that runs on them.

Do you think that it would have been disappointing to Google if Nexus One had sold like hotcakes?

Actually I think they might have seen it as a problem. I genuinely believe they wanted to target the N1 at only developers and sophisticated users who generally self-serve as far as support goes. They wanted to seed the evangelist and developer communities with a top notch, completely open phone so that they would then develop for and recommend Android to their followers.

Had grandma and joe sixpack started using it they might never have been able to handle the support issues. I think they identified a set of users who gave them high "bang for their buck" and specifically targeted them. I know many people say they never saw an ad for the N1 and yet I saw them for a solid 2 months straight on every page that had Google ads on them.

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